Drewry sees profits dry up as 2016's deliveries add 1.3 million TEU
Time：2016-04-07
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"Carriers will have to continue to juggle new ship capacity with even more dexterity. New orders doubled in 2015 to an aggregate capacity of two million TEU (90 per cent of which were 10,000 TEU and above) that will have to find deployment before the decade is out," Drewry Maritime Advisors said.
"Newbuild prices are still very attractive and shipyards are very keen to generate business so the recent slowdown is either a signal that owners have realised there is no demand right now for any more new ships and/or that financial pressure among carriers and non-operating owners is suppressing activity," it added.
The London-based analysts warn the rising number of ship orders will have a "disastrous" impact on the industry, with carriers running out of profitable trades to deploy their mega ships.
The average size of the ships at work in the Asia-North Europe trade lane rose 16 per cent to 14,100 TEU since the start of 2015, reported London`s Container Management.
Even 18,000-TEU ships have entered the Asia-west coast North America (WCNA) route, and the Asia-east coast South America (ECSA) trade saw a disproportionately high intake of newbuilds.
Around 132,000 TEU of newbuild capacity has been added to the Asia-ECSA services over the past year, with the average vessel size growing by 19 per cent to 8,800 TEU, while headhaul demand growth in these two trades decreased by 14.5 per cent and 3.4 per cent in 2015, respectively.